Who’s hot and who’s not in premier league |

Who’s Hot and Who’s Not in English Premier League

by Ahmad on Feb.01, 2010, under English Premier League, Watchprem blog

Hot team
Chelsea continues to win, Liverpool are steadying the ship, Villa are looking good and Everton have made an impressive about turn in their season. Birmingham continue to impress and their last minute equalizer against Spurs made it just one defeat in sixteen games. Manchester City bounced back from Carling Cup disappointment, but the ‘Hot team’ this week must be Manchester United. They were simply awesome in their 3-1 win at Arsenal.

Not Hot team

It is really horrible to kick people when they are down and it is not possible to get much lower than Portsmouth are at the moment. It is almost impossible to see any light at the end of the tunnel for them and they are almost as bad on the pitch as they are off it.

Hot keeper

With England crying out for an above average goalkeeper to appear from somewhere before this summer’s World Cup, it might pay Fabio Capello to pop along to Blackburn to have a look at the rehabilitated Paul Robinson.

His forty-one England caps are a long forgotten memory now, but he looks like he might be back to somewhere near his best.

Not Hot keeper

Recently I gave the ‘Not Hot keeper’ award to Arsenal’s Fabianski. I said that he was nowhere near as good as Manuel Almunia. I might have to reconsider that opinion. Almunia was terrible yesterday.

Arsenal may need a striker and they may need another centre-half, but goodness me, they don’t half need a new keeper.

Hot defender

The current revelations about John Terry don’t show the Chelsea and England skipper in a very good light. I have no idea what he is like as a person and if half the stories are true then he might not be the nicest bloke in the world.

Having said that, he is a leader and has amazing mental strength. At this time, one of the worst in his career on a personal level, he strides forward and heads home a late winner for Chelsea to keep them clear at the top. That really does show some character.

Not Hot defender

Anthony Gardner looked as though he might become a top defender when he first burst onto the scene at Tottenham. He has never quite lived up to that early promise but he has found a regular Premier League starting place at Hull.

Unfortunately for him and Hull, he had a particularly bad day on Saturday. His performance was rather summed up by the wildly sliced own goal he scored which helped Wolves to get a point.

Hot midfielder

How many goals has Tim Cahill scored with his head? How many winning goals has Tim Cahill scored? Well, I don’t know the answer to either of those questions but my guess is that it is loads! Another winning header from him on Saturday made him a real contender for this award until Nani stepped up to the plate at the Emirates.

The Portuguese winger has spent his time at Old Trafford in the shadows of others and generally disappointing all and sundry with his performances. He was superb yesterday and if he continues in his current form all those Manchester United fans might just forget all together about CR7.

Not Hot midfielder

I didn’t realise Denilson was playing for Arsenal yesterday until he got substituted!

Hot striker

He has had a real up and down couple of seasons but Aston Villa’s Gabby Agbonlahor has tremendous pace and defenders never like that. He doesn’t score enough goals but he bagged both of them in their 2-0 win at Fulham on Saturday. If he has a good second half to the season there might still be room for him on the plane to South Africa.

Having said that, the winner of this award has to be a man who simply must be on that plane if England are to have any chance at all. Wayne Rooney scored his 100th Premier League goal and gave another masterclass in how to play as a lone striker.

Not Hot striker

David Ngog is a young man still making his way in the game. He has the impossible task of trying to step into the shoes of Fernando Torres when the Liverpool hit-man is unavailable.

He has started to win me over a little and looks like a decent prospect. Having said that, the chance he missed on Saturday, hitting the post when I would have fancied my grandma to score was worthy of winning this award all on its own.